Puhoi Valley Cafe & Cheese Store. Photo / Supplied
Address: 275 Ahuroa Rd, Puhoi Valley
Herald rating:
The menu is on top of the counter, so go in and grab one as soon as you arrive. The focus is (surprise, surprise) cheese on the small all-day menu, and a wide pastry and sandwich selection is on display. If the weather's right, you can opt to pack a
basket with cheese and antipasto and enjoy a picnic on the grassy property.
The look is kid-friendly fun. Inside felt kind of chaotic on this busy weekend, so we sat on the deck outside. There's a well-equipped playground, oodles of lush space for running around and a pond where ducks paddle. There's complimentary cheese tasting on offer and a glorious cheese cellar worth a peek.
The food arrived faster than we anticipated, before the flat whites, but a little less warm than we'd like. My "famous in Puhoi bacon butty" ($14) was the winner - toasted with Puhoi Windy Peak gouda oozing between the streaky bacon and onion relish. Afterwards, we treated ourselves to a delicious $4.50 scoop of award-winning hokey-pokey icecream.
The coffee was also not hot enough ($4) and in hindsight we wish we'd picked a Puhoi frappe made with in-house vanilla bean icecream ($7.50).
